At a recent Paisley Babylon gig at the Horror Society’s two-day film festival in Chicago, I did an all-horror related live mashup and turntablist multimedia set using a pair of Audio-Technica ATLP 120 USB turntables. I am pleased to say these Audio-Technica turntables worked quite well and give me good, consistent performance.

I took delivery of three of these AT USB turntables back in the middle of summer, but hadn’t had a chance to put them through their paces in a live setting until October when I started doing DJ Paisley Babylon gigs and performing Paisley Babylon Beautiful Chaos shows.

I am a big believer in these turntables after having used them in my October gigs here in Chicago. In spite of the weight–the AT120LP USB turntables have a built-in pre-amp so you can select line-level output or phono output–these were wonderful.

Perfectly suited for my needs as I was feeding line-level out from the turntable into an echo unit for life dub and mashup effects I could hold in my hand and make a big goofy show out of using. It’s a hell of a lot of fun to manipulate vinyl in this way!

My only gripe with these turntables has to do with the switch for selecting line out or phono out. Beware when transporting them as the switch is in the rear of the unit and is susceptible to breaking off if it gets jammed up against other gear as you’re transporting to short distance gigs. I threw mine in the back of the vehicle too close to my vinyl crates and one pothole and a jostle took out the switch on turntable #3. My fault for not packing more carefully, but something to keep in mind.

At the end of the day I can highly recommend the Audio-Technica ATLP120 USB turntable. It has much going for it and I’ll be getting good use of these for a long time to come.